Midnight Horizons
by Mechalich
Summary: A Force Adept on the run from the Empire steals a ship and a heading, stumbling into a mystery that reaches higher than he could possibly imagine. Now, with some unlikely companions, he has to try and survive his enemies and his fear to claim his destiny.


Dedicated to Class 0904

**Midnight Horizons**

**Outer Rim**

**Tevrial-Mothc System**

**Colony Spaceport**

**14 BBY**

Leeav knew things had gotten really bad when she blew up his ship. Though the act itself was bad enough, it was probably the way it happened the way it happened that hurt the most. Blasting straight through the docking bay canvas and spearing it with lasers until it was reduced to superheated slag from high altitude. So brazen, so brutal, so manifestly unfair!

_Gunalley Runner_ had deserved a better fate than being blown to scrap on a pad, the pilot knew it in his soul, and it scourged him. Six clone wars battles and five years of solid work since, the old girl had deserved to go down fighting. Now the modified ARC-170 was so much ignominious debris, and Leeav was a fugitive lacking any escape route.

Bitch! He railed in silence, cursing the bounty hunter while he slunk away among the rapidly panicking spaceport operations. It was hard to accept, to recognize mentally, that not only had she done what she had done, but she was going to get away with it completely. Wasn't the Empire supposed to inaugurate a new era of galaxy-wide order and prevent this kind of bullshit? Is it good for anything?

Knowing he looked suspicious, for the drab brown shirt and pants he wore like countless other freelance spacers did not match the bright colors chosen by the citizens of this particular miserable little Outer Rim colony system, the fugitive pilot momentarily ducked behind a pile of parts crates. He needed some time to come up with the next move.

The authorities, if such an organization even exists here, he thought quickly, are not going to stop her. She's got too much firepower on that ship of hers, they'll be utterly intimidated. Looking up Leeav could follow the descent of his pursuer's vessel, a ridiculously up-gunned HWK-290, as it slowly maneuvered into another nearby docking bay. He had minutes at most before she was on the ground and after him in person.

Five worlds, three IDs, two ships and one live-fire shootout, Leeav chronicled his desperation. And she's still coming on at full speed. I am so not worth this, he thought, indulging in a brief moment of self-pity, something he'd been doing more often of late No way do I rate a bounty hunter this good. He sighed softly. There was nothing to be done about it; you couldn't fight Imperial policy from the cockpit of a fighter.

He had initially hoped the colony world of Tevrial-Mothc, on the least explored side of the galaxy and far from any centers of power, would be obscure enough to offer a good hiding place. Now it was clear that was not going to happen. The woman chasing him was close enough to personifying relentless that such obstacles would never faze her. I need to get away, far, far, away, he recognized. And for that I absolutely have to get a ship.

"Sithspit," Leeav hissed, lurching into motion, jogging just fast enough to provoke no stares among the milling yard workers. He headed toward the docking bays on the west side, as far from the bounty hunter's landing zone as possible. He knew he was too hot to get on a ship, and had no time to arrange to buy one. That meant stealing, and the realization pained him. When the newly inaugurated Galactic Empire had put a price on his head for the crime of being born with a connection to the Force he'd known moral compromises would follow in the name of survival, and he'd made more than he was truly comfortable with in the five years eking out an existence on the very edge of the system, but taking a ship was a new line to cross. He was a pilot and ship captain himself, a spacer through and through, and the idea was repugnant to this core persona. Force trumps roots, he cursed silently. Thanks a lot Palpatine!

Most people had vacated this portion of the spaceport by now, either responding to the emergency caused by his flaming fighter or simply choosing to exercise the better part of valor and getting out ahead of the coming storm. Leeav wished he had such a simple option available. Oh well, he shrugged as he dashed about, searching desperately for a ship able to serve his needs.

Leeav was not a Jedi, not even close. If he was he doubted he'd be running from one lone bounty hunter, no matter how dogged. He simply had a little touch for the Force, nothing more. It was useful when flying and he'd honed the skill enough over time so he could pull some fairly impressive tricks when in a cockpit on occasion, but his understanding really did not extend any further. Sometimes he was still bitter about the trade-off, but then again, the Jedi were all dead, and the Force hadn't saved them, had it?

Still, the Force was doubtless useful. For one, even with a glimmer of Force sensing it was possible to tell which vessels were occupied and which ones were empty. He walked among the parked starships as rapidly as he dared, dodging the occasional security camera or flustered utility droid. For a despairingly long time he saw nothing useful, no ship fast enough or suitably easy to hotwire.

Blasterfire blared in the distance, echoing its fury down the twisting, durasteel plated hallways. Instinctively Leeav ducked, remembering the darkest moments of the Clone Wars. He drew his blaster pistol, even as he knew the relatively weak little civilian model had next to no chance of penetrating the bounty hunter's armor. Regardless, there was a certain comfort even the least combat veteran took in being armed.

There was a burst of fire followed by an agonizing scream, and the pilot stopped, dropping to his knees and turning in the direction of the conflict.

There were walls in the way of course, and so he found his eyes resting upon the hull of a strange vessel, a ship type he'd never seen before. By itself this was unusual, for Leeav recognized a great many models, but not extraordinary. The resonant feeling he received from the Force in the instant his eyes caught the battered and gray hull plating, a cool deluge of certainty he'd never experienced before, was unearthly. Without needing an explanation or review, he knew he was meant to take this ship.

In moments Leeav had crossed the open area of the docking bay to the hatch of this battered but durable-looking vessel. It was vaguely elliptical in form, but an oversized drive section gave the ship a rather quaint impression as a big, gray, metallic egg. The pilot pulled a tool from the broad belt wrapped around the left leg of his flight suit, a store of essential equipment no starship pilot went without. A few seconds of practiced work, aided by another little nudge of unexpected insight from the Force, and he was inside. Smacking the door controls to shut the hot-wired portal behind him, Leeav dared to breathe a small sigh of relief.

"That should hold her for a moment or two at least," he grinned. He had no illusions that this hound would be stopped by something as minor as a freighter hull, but it would surely take her some time to put the means together. He just had to figure out how to start, launch, and fly the ship before she managed it. "No sweat," he grinned in spite of himself.

The ship design setup was not Correllian, or Fondorian, or any shipyard standard Leeav knew, but it was surely intended for use by a human-shaped crew. Making his way to the cockpit, a two-seat area in the center of the bow, he found a small metal plate on the wall. "_Edge Vista_," he read out loud, testing the name and deciding it was a good one. "Now to start this thing," he muttered hands wandering over the unfamiliar instrument panel, searching for the correct switch.

It took a few tries, but within a minute the pilot was going through the power up sequence and had discovered, to his great joy, that the ship was fully fueled. The start up sequence was simply and swift, Leeav was sure he'd have repulsorlifts up and running in only a moment more.

Then he heard movement behind him. Not the booted footsteps of a stalking enemy, but an electronic whine produced only by machinery and the whirr and rumble of treads.

He spun, pulling the blaster pistol off the control console as he did so.

"You're not-" the interjection changed in mid-phrase. "Don't shoot I have no weapon systems."

Leeav discovered he was actually holding his weapon too high anyway. The presence in the hallway belonged to a droid only about a meter high. It had a sturdy appearance, with a flat helmeted head and thick conical arms with three-fingered pincer hands. The design was familiar to the fugitive pilot, though he'd never actually encountered one before. "Why is there an M38 Explorer on this ship?" he demanded of the droid.

"For exploration of course," the M38 replied in an upbeat, educational voice. "Why is there an unknown man holding a blaster onboard?"

Stuck suddenly by the impression of facing down a frightfully learned child, Leeav was unexpectedly embarrassed. "I'm going to borrow it," he managed. "Possibly permanently."

The droid's hands opened and closed with an audible series of clicks. "Ah, well in that case I imagine I'd be less likely to get shot if I surrendered the security lock-code."

"It would be easier than hotwiring it certainly," Leeav permitted himself a small smile at the droid's cooperative impulse. Friendliest being I've met in weeks.

"The code is DV-X165, verbal password 'Close to the Edge'," Leeav moved quick enough in inputting the code that the droid's recitation of the phrase tripped through the system and the console glowed as it came fully to life.

"Don't go anywhere," Leeav gestured at the droid with his blaster pistol before turning back to the controls. "I'm getting us out of here."

He spoke not a moment too soon, even as he turned the repulsorlifts on the bounty hunter entered the docking bay. She was instantly recognizable in her Ubese bodysuit, a midnight blue coloration, and festooned with an assortment of highly illegal and extremely deadly weaponry, including a massively destructive under-slung grenade launcher attached to her primary blaster rifle.

"Where are the shields droid?" Leeav demanded as that launcher, and the blasters of several spaceport security guards, moved to point at the ship. He had clearly been seen through the cockpit transparisteel.

"Turquoise switch! Turquoise switch!" the M38's voice rose as its clearly well-honed sense of self-preservation kicked into overdrive.

He got the shields up just as the Ubese started bombarding them. Leeav had to give the bounty hunter credit, she was adaptable and without hesitation, even as he bemoaned his bad luck.

"Grab something!" he shouted to the droid just as he engaged the repulsolifts. Waiting only long enough to gain a few meters of clearance he punched in the main engines, hurtling the ship forward and slamming the attackers to the ground in the backwash. The knowledge of this provided Leeav with a momentary glow of satisfaction, robbed swiftly as he realized the Ubese woman would be back up and on his heels in a flash. With desperate urgency he set his newly acquired ship on an exit vector, ignored screamed profanities from the spaceport controllers over the comm, and pushed the throttle to full.

Reading off the subsequent gains in velocity the pilot was mildly impressed. It seemed to be a surprisingly fast ship. "Since we're going to be stuck together for a little while at least," Leeav noted as he swiveled the chair around. "Do you have a name droid?"

"I am usually called Myr," the M38 replied. "I believe it was originally a joke at my expense, but I am content with it."

"Well then Myr," Leeav pulled up the navicomputer interface. "Do you have any good ideas as to places we could go and not be found? This bounty hunter doesn't give up."

"All navigation data in my memory was purged by my previous owner," Myr replied, not sounded particularly happy about it. "But I believe the _Edge Vista_'s earliest records contain some destination not contained in any known registry."

"Really? Like what?" Generally it took some real effort to get off the charts, the Republic had been big on charting that which it did not understand, but Tevrial-Mothc was pretty out there on the Outer Rim, so an adventurous captain might have located some special contacts.

"I don't know, I was not with the ship at the time," Myr chittered. "By the way, man-with-a-blaster, what is your name?"

"Leeav Hraost," the pilot felt embarrassed again, to be reminded of courtesy by an explorer droid.

Apiece of the control board suddenly signaled its immediate relevance by chirping repeatedly. Leeav navigated through the still-unfamiliar system in a hurry, only to discover he was hearing a proximity warning. Something was closing on them and fast. He had no need to bring up the sensor display to know it was a HWK-290 piloted by one very angry Ubese.

Leeav's impulse to curse was interrupted by a trio of loud rings, the sound of metal slamming on metal.

"What was that?" he demanded, glaring at Myr.

"I do not know," the droid replied. "My sensors indicate it came from the engine access. I have not been there in some time."

_Edge Vista_ wasn't slow; she was no straight off the lot light freighter, but the Ubese's ship was faster, designed for pursuit. Leeav had no doubt she'd start firing at maximum missile range too. "Go back and see if we're missing something critical," the pilot ordered the droid. "I've got to get set to make the jump to lightspeed.

"Very well, I do not desire to go down with the ship," Myr reversed his treads and trundled backwards.

Hurriedly, as they exited the atmosphere into the blackness of space, Leeav cycled through the log in the navicomp, pulling up the oldest listings. He didn't recognize any of them, so, reaching out to the Force as best he could he chose a location at random.

The computer locked in for a system labeled Eogresh.

About two seconds later there came a blaring alarm indicating the detection of a missile launch. "Myr!" the pilot knew time was up, and unless the engine was about to fly out the stern it was time to go. "Are we good?"

"Well, I think…"

Good enough, Leeav decided, and he pulled back on the hyperdrive lever.

Stars distended into starlines as the ship leapt beyond the reach of missiles and, with any luck, angry bounty hunters.

Chapter Notes

Many ARC-170 starfighters were sold off after the Clone Wars, apparently because the three man fighters required too much expensive maintenance. Therefore it is not unreasonable that a former fighter pilot might own one. Leeav's experiences in the Clone Wars will be detailed further as the story continues.

HWK-290 transports are cannon vessels, the Moldy Crow, used by Kyle Katarn, was one of them. It seems a suitable vessel for a bounty hunter.

Though initially the Empire cracked down mostly on Jedi and their allies and affiliates, this persecution gradually spread to encompass all Force users, probably in the interest of giving the Inquisitorious something do and because of Palpatine's paranoia. Therefore Leeav, as someone who publicly used the Force under the Old Republic, makes for a fine, if somewhat minor, target.

M38 Explorer droid's are represented in canon, appearing in the Complete Guide to Droids and other minor references. Myr does not represent a stock model, having undergone several after-market upgrades, including, assuming it was not standard, being made able to speak. His name, which of course means 'ant' in Latin, is a somewhat complicated joke that will make sense a his background is fully revealed.

_Edge Vista_ is unfamiliar because it was built in the Unknown Regions, which is where the fugitives are headed. However, there is much evidence to suggest many traders on the relevant parts of the Outer Rim did semi-regularly cross into the Unknown Regions. The Dark Nest crisis in particular implies this.

Ubese Bounty Hunters are common in Star Wars, stemming from the Ubese Princess Leia impersonated in Return of the Jedi.


End file.
